Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to swear in a new cabinet Wednesday, his office said, the third caretaker government since the 2007 de facto West Bank-Gaza split dpa reported
Contrary to a February compromise with the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza, Abbas is not expected to take on the role of prime minister, in addition to his presidential one.
Instead, Acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is expected to remain in his post.
Some 19 ministers are to be sworn in, about nine of whom are new, while 10 others keep their old portfolios.
In June 2007, Hamas seized sole control of Gaza by attacking Abbas' security forces, dominated by his secular Fatah movement. The government's power is therefore effectively limited to the West Bank.
But the parties have tried in vain to reunite the two territories.
They signed an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal in May last year, but have since bickered about who should lead the interim unity government that should have prepared for long-overdue Palestinian elections. The poll should have taken place earlier this month.
Hamas had rejected Fayyad, whose scheduled renomination Wednesday is a sign of the ongoing internal Palestinian stalemate.
Local observers have said that both sides do not appear truly interested in a reunification. Hamas seems reluctant to give up sole power in Gaza and Abbas wary of jeopardizing his relations with the West by joining forces with the Islamists.
Nabil Qassis, a Christian and former president of Birzeit University in the West Bank, may replace Fayyad as finance minister. The latter, an internationally respected economist, has held the portfolio almost uninterruptedly since 2003.